They may say that everything’s bigger in Texas, but the Lone Star State has nothing on New York City when it comes to the size, scope and scale of its real-estate development projects. The latest example is the Hudson Yards project, which is being billed as the largest private real-estate development in the history of the United States. Located on a 28-acre parcel over a Metropolitan Transportation Authority railyard on Midtown Manhattan’s far west side along the Hudson River, just south of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. 
When Hudson Yards reaches final buildout in 2024, it will have cost more than $20 billion.
Understandably, a project of this historic scope and magnitude presents a myriad of challenges for the property owners, contractors and subcontractors who are tasked with bringing it safely and successfully to completion. Not least of these challenges is guaranteeing the safety and security of the numerous unique construction sites for the thousands of laborers who will have a prominent hand in turning the project into reality.
“Hudson Yards is unique with a large footprint and multiple entry points where laborers enter the site,” says David Johnson, Business Development Manager for Modular Security Systems Inc. (MSSI), an Ohio-based company that specializes in engineering, designing and manufacturing portable security solutions. “Job sites like this have multiple entry points that can change over time, which highlights one of the many benefits of our modular solutions.”
Specifically, in December 2012, when ground was broken for the project, representatives from onsite general contractors supporting Related Property Groups, which owns the Hudson Yards acreage, reached out to MSSI and eventually acquired several of their patented Modular Access Control (MAC) Portals. These are reconfigured ISO shipping containers constructed of 16-gauge COR-TEN weathering steel that are installed directly into the perimeter fencing at a construction site.

They feature full-height, high-security, tamper-proof turnstiles, electronic entry/egress access-control technologies (proximity cards, card readers, RFID tags, hand geometry, iris scanners, etc.) and video-surveillance equipment.
The MAC Portal can integrate with any commercially available software system to generate reports, track worker time, prevent theft and issue payroll records. This allows the contractor to know which laborers are on-site and for how long, and to ensure that any non-approved people cannot enter the construction site.
Additionally, for those types of government projects that have worker-diversity requirements, the reporting software can track whether or not certain workforce-employment standards regarding race or nationality are being met.
“One benefit of the MAC Portal is that by creating a controlled entry or choke point, the labor workforce enters a unique part of the project,” Johnson says. “Because of this controlled action, you can ensure that you get the most accurate access-control reporting by job.”
Whether the property owner/general contractor is looking to control authorized access to the site, know who is on site at all times, validate geographic residency of its workforce, measure ethnic or gender diversity, or to cross reference labor hours reflected in the access control software against payroll provided by subcontractors.
“The only true way to do this accurately is by creating a choke point or controlled entry into the job site and the MAC portal is best suited for that job,” he says.
The MAC Portal was invented in 2004, inspired by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that created intensified Homeland Security Department requirements regarding construction-site safety and security. The first MAC Portal was designed and built in just a few months, and has been continually improved and fine-tuned since that initial installation.
In the beginning
Today, MAC Portals are used in 55 countries on six continents around the world. Ironton, Ohio-based Portable Solutions Group (PSG), MSSI’s parent company, has grown along with the ever-advancing technology and now has more than 100 employees.
“The terrorists who crashed the planes into the World Trade Center on 9/11 were on a mission to destroy the American economy,” says Robert Slagel, CEO and president of Portable Solutions Group (PSG), MSSI’s parent company. “The MAC Portal was invented because of what those terrorists did—it made us highly aware of the need to control our perimeters. Solutions like this are a testament to the fact that you can’t keep America down and you can’t underestimate the American entrepreneurial spirit to find ways to keep our great country safe and strong.”
Still, the constant threat of terrorism on home soil continues to hang over the U.S., which has sparked a trend that has caused some commercial-construction companies – in particular those that conduct their business in major cities along the coastline – to turn to access-control devices like the MAC Portal as a cutting-edge way to protect their sites.
Another key capability of the MAC Portals for the Hudson Yards project is that they are portable, meaning that when work is completed at a certain area of the site, the MAC Portal can be easily and quickly relocated to another area where work may be continuing or beginning.
MAC Portals can also be either purchased or leased by the project manager, which gives site developers flexibility depending on how the construction schedule of the project plays out. Currently, a total of nine MAC Portals are being deployed at the Hudson yards site, with seven having been purchased and two being leased.

“There’s going to be a fascination component to this project, as well. There will be a tower that will be a draw so that people will want to come there and photograph it.” – David Johnson, Business Development Manager, MSSI

“A lot of job sites get into the position where they need more labor than originally thought,” Johnson says. “If they go from 300 to 900 employees for six months, they can rent from us, then when they go back to 300, they can return it. This allows companies to flex their expenses, as well. On the other hand, for projects like Hudson Yards, which are three- to five-year or more projects, it makes sense to purchase the asset since the general contractor can take the portal to future projects, which gives them a controlled one-time expense that maximizes the value of their spend.”
When the Hudson Yards project reaches completion in 2024, it is expected that annually more than 7,000 construction workers will have had access to the site. They will take great pride in knowing that they contributed to a project that is expected to deliver around $19 billion a year to New York City’s gross domestic product.
When finished, Hudson Yards will consists of 16 skyscrapers – the first of which opened in May 2016 – containing more than 12.7 million square feet of new office, residential and retail space. The 750,000-square-foot retail center will contain two levels of restaurants, cafes, markets and bars.
Additionally, the site will feature a 200-room hotel, a cultural space, nearly 5,000 residences, a 750-seat school and 14 acres of open public space. Estimates say that when the project is fully completed, 125,000 people a day will either work at, visit or call Hudson Yards their home.
“There’s going to be a fascination component to this project, as well,” Johnson says. “There will be a tower that will be a draw so that people will want to come there and photograph it. You’ll be able to get on a walkway in the Chelsea area near Hudson Yards and there’ll be flower beds over the rail tracks and down to the pier. It will be a destination spot that will draw a lot of people for many years to come and it will be nice to know that our MAC Portals played a role in its overall development.”
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Miles Duncil II is the marketing director for Portable Solutions Group and has nine years of experience in the portable jobsite solutions industry. A graduate of Morehead State University, he can be reached at mduncil@dropboxinc.com or 888-388-7768.